A Maltese investigative journalist who exposed the island nation's links to offshore tax havens through the leaked Panama Papers was killed Monday when a bomb exploded in her car, the prime minister said.

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SA, NSW face power shortages as temps soar

Households across NSW face the prospect of being plunged into the dark like their South Australian neighbours as hot temperatures grip both states.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), which operates the nation's largest gas and electricity markets, says the hot weather is causing huge demand for power in both states and putting strain on the entire system.

NSW faces a possible power shortage late on Friday afternoon, meaning households and businesses could plagued by blackouts like those in South Australia on Wednesday when temperatures climbed above 40C.

AMEO says it hopes it won't have to order power cuts - or "load shedding" - like on Wednesday night in parts of Adelaide and some regional centres to prevent the entire network shutting down as electricity demand neared record levels.

"AEMO is in discussion with a number of generators within NSW and the NSW government to mitigate the need for local load shedding," AMEO said.

"If consumers can safely reduce their electricity consumption during periods of high demand, this can ease the supply/demand balance and can mitigate the need for load shedding."

Hot conditions are forecast across NSW on Friday and the weekend, with parts of Sydney expected to see the mercury rise into the low 40s. Temperatures are expected to remain in the high 30s for South Australia and Queensland.

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SA's Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis warned his state's power problems could spread east because of what he described as "a massive, catastrophic failure of the national electricity market".

"I think what you're seeing at a national level is an ignorance that the problem that's occurring here is coming to a city near you on the eastern seaboard soon," he said.

"We have an oversupply of generation, but the market is unable to dispatch that electricity to sufficiently meet our needs."

The Australian Energy Council, which represents energy generators, said there should be sufficient capacity in NSW to meet demand.

However, a spokesman said South Australia was "a different story" because it relied more on intermittent power generation from wind and solar since a coal-fired power station closed in 2016, making the state more vulnerable to heatwaves and energy imports from Victoria.

Energy analyst and ANU honorary associate professor Dr Hugh Saddler said part of the reason for SA's blackouts was its extreme temperature variations which cause sudden spikes in power demand.

By contrast, NSW and Queensland have more constant hot weather meaning their networks have a better idea of what demand they need to meet.

Dr Saddler backed calls for SA's mothballed Pelican Point gas-fired power station to fully reopened to help stabilise the power network.

"They'd have more local generation capacity and it would make the whole system more robust and reliable and certain," Dr Saddler told AAP.

"It would add between five and 10 per cent of generation capacity locally in the state."